If the democrats survive a 2008 defeat...

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Option 2.

I'd hate to see the Democratic Party become a socially conservative yet an even more economically socialist party in nature. 

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Democrats should ignore the Deep South altogether.   Why would the Democratic Party want to dumb themselves down to appeal to a constiuency that would never vote for them anyway in a national election?   The West is best.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Democrats should ignore the Deep South altogether.   Why would the Democratic Party want to dumb themselves down to appeal to a constiuency that would never vote for them anyway in a national election?   The West is best.

That's what I have been saying. That strategy is maybe good for picking up a COUPLE of unreliable congressmen, but it doesn't really work on a level above that. I really don't know how McCaskill pulled it off.

Missouri I don't consider "Deep South".  A centrist Democrat can easily pull off an electoral victory here.     Or a Democrat as described in Option 2.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Populism, socialism, wealth-distibution, whatever you want to call it, is a failed ideology.   It is an economic failure.    It has failed everywhere where it has been implemented, which is why option 1 is not feasible either.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

What are some of the 2012 candidates we should realistically look at?

Mark Warner, Evan Bayh, Kathleen Sebelius, Tom Vilsack.   Possibly Ed Rendell.   Only because he strikes me as a tough, no-nonsense old school Democrat in the tradition of FDR, Truman.   He can get the white male vote, as can all the others I've mentioned.

I would say Brad Henry, too, but he looks too goofy.   Shallow?   Yes, but little stuff like that matters ya know.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Its quite unfortunate about Elliot Spitzer, too, because he would have made an incredible VP choice for Warner in 2012.   The gentleman from Virginia and the "fcuking steamroller" would have torn the GOP a new bunghole, and would have been a kick-ass ticket.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Every time the Dems field a leftist candidate, it always ends in utter disaster, so option 4 is not feasible.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result each time.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Note to Democrats:

The whole point of presidential elections is to win them.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Why wouldn't the Democrats survive a 2008 defeat? I'm kinda used to it . All that tells me is that the Democrats need to be more pragmatic when it comes to selecting future nominees and there may come a time when the party needs to confront its dovish base

Democrats, rightly or wrongly, still have a perceived credibility gap when it comes to defense and national security. And have done since 1968, more or less, when the lunatics took over the asylum

Why the necessity for liberal purity? Because I don't get it!

Supportive of Obama as I am - and yes, I'm at variance with the senator on certain issues - the fact that more moderate Democrats struggled to get out of the traps in 2008 has peeved me off a bit

Back in the immediate aftermath of His Ineptness being, sadly, re-elected in 2004, I warned against the potential nightmare scenario of liberal Democrat vs moderate Republican in 2012 and, rightly or wrongly, McCain is perceived as a moderate Republican despite the fact he is now rebrandishing his conservative credentials with flip-flops on the Bush tax cuts and an ever shifting rationale for opposing them to begin with

Dave

The Democrats can break this cycle of losing presidential elections if they just simply stuck to the formula that works best for them:  choose centrist governors as their candidates.

It is absolutely ludicrous to suggest Dem candidates pass a liberal purity test, when such candidates are bound to lose in a general election.  Whats the point of advancing a progressive agenda when your progressive candidates have zero chance in winning the White House?    Makes no sense.